The main problem with these burgeoning apps is finding them. Search engines haven't kept up with the huge amount of data out there. Digging through 1500 apps in hopes of finding one that meets my needs is not an option. Especially when 90% of what comes up is useless or off-topic. A lot of them are malware, too. They report things about you and your phone without telling you. When you can search "certified safe" apps accurately by topic (i.e. a search for "weather" doesn't turn up "pretty girl" apps), these apps will have arrived.
The potential is great! Too bad that there is so much clogging the works.

Agree with Selinz: At age 76 I cannot easily read the my smartphone "stuff" unless I ban the banners and most web pages and stick to making phone calls and reading email without attachments. I can use 10 percent of smartphone features perhaps, and its much slower than answering my old phone so far, and bulkier. But that's a senior view. Grandkids love it, so no more PC's for them. Just games.

It's true that smartphones are becoming the center of our personal universe. I dropped off my son for an interview and he had a couple hours to kill. I suggested that he bring is relatively new laptop. "No, I can do anything I want to do with my phone." Because of the screen resolution packed into smartphones, the only headset that is really needed for me is a set of reading glasses!

I own a Roku HD and last week I installed their remote control app on my Razr M phone. It found the Roku on my Wi-Fi home network immediately and it works amazingly well indeed. There is no perceivable lag between touches on the screen and corresponding action on the TV screen.

I see a wave of new-generation CE vendors flooding the market by developing products that truly leverage smartphones consumers already have. Connectivity to mobile phones is no longer an afterthought for these companies.
Share your favorites -- gadgets and apps built for smartphones -- that are not listed here!

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.